


Take Your Own Advice

by TrueMeg



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec says "Fuck" in this fic, Coda, Episode: s03e10 Erchomai, Eventual Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Light Angst, M/M, Magnus and Alec deserve nice things, Post-Episode: s03e10 Erchomai, Supportive Alec Lightwood, Supportive Magnus Bane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 13:19:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15120242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrueMeg/pseuds/TrueMeg
Summary: Magnus and Alec are both healing. Both of them need a few words to help the other. Set after 3x10





	Take Your Own Advice

Alec was chasing the familiarity of the bow in his hand. The weight and balance, the delicacy of each arrow, and the precision that he’d worked so hard to perfect over the years. The familiarity made everything so simple to him.

Which was why it was so frustrating how insanely hard it was to do right now. 

Here he was, one of the best Shadowhunters alive with a bow and arrow, and now he couldn’t even hold them correctly. 

In the days after the night where he was almost killed, Alec was forced onto the sidelines. He healed and would survive, but the energy from the greater demon that caused it all made his injuries heal much slower than normal, even with daily healing runes. The injury on his chest made him short of breath if he exerted himself too much, while his right hand was confined to a brace for the time being. 

Alec tried pushing past the pain in his arm. But the strain of the taught bow made his whole arm tremble, and radiate with a dull, warm pain. More than once, this practice of trying to shoot through the pain made a spasm of pain shoot up to his shoulder, forcing him to let everything clatter to the floor. Alec’s arm was trembling now, the pain from the break growing slowly spreading up to his wrist. If only he could just get the arrow to fly. Just hit the canvas of the target and he’d be happy. But he couldn’t get his fingers to move, to just uncurl and let the arrow go. Suddenly the spasm of pain returned, his arm twitching as he let everything go. 

“Fuck!”

The first few days he welcomed the rest he got. But only a week later, he felt like he was going insane.

Even when he tried doing something useful, he was shut down. Isabelle and Underhill had taken over his duties as Head of the Institute until he recovered. And they didn’t let him in on anything, no matter what it was. So maybe if he could get back in the training room to practice, it would calm him down. But it just made him feel worse when he couldn’t do something so simple.

“Alexander?”

Alec turned his head to the training room door. Magnus had one shoulder leaning against the door frame. The look of concern was on his face, one that Alec got every time he cradled his injured arm or had to catch his breath. He was never mad at Magnus but he was tired of that expression. 

“You shouldn’t be doing that,” Magnus said softly.

“I’m fine,” Alec said. He bent over and picked up the bow and arrow. 

“Alexander, you’re going to hurt yourself more.”

“I need to...” He clenched his teeth, “I can’t take not doing anything right now.” Alec had long since learned that he couldn’t hide anything from Magnus. They knew each other too well. 

Magnus stepped into the training room and put an arm around Alec. “I know...” His voice was still gentle. It helped Alec center himself. “But you know too that you’ll just make it worse if you push yourself too much.”

Alec didn’t say anything for a few moments, staring down at his bow in his left hand an the brace around his arm on the right. So close yet so far...

“Please... for me?” Magnus tried. 

Alec finally stepped away, only to put the bow back in it’s spot on the wall before rejoining Magnus.

Magnus gave him a soft smile. “Let’s go home.”

It didn’t take long for Alec to fall asleep soon after they returned to the loft. As much as he tried saying he was fine, he still needed lots of rest. Magnus was almost forcing him to rest as much as he could. 

Honestly, making sure Alec was okay was a great distraction. It was times like this, when Alec was sleeping the afternoon away and Magnus was alone in his office, that Magnus couldn’t help himself. 

The first few days without his magic were hard, but he managed. One day, one hour at a time, Magnus was making it work despite the difficulty, and the feeling that nearly half of himself was just gone. He could get by. At least most daily things, he already hadn’t been using magic. Catarina had stepped in to help when he truly needed magic. Otherwise, it was still a huge adjustment. Things took more time, and extra effort now. Not just without his magic, but also because of his lack of energy. 

Magnus was trying to ignore how tired he was growing, going on like this. 

The sky had slowly turned to twilight, with the last bits of the orange sunset peeking over the skyline outside Magnus’s window. He’d been sitting in one spot at his desk for hours now, pouring over a pile of books -- some new, some he’d been through two or three times before -- trying to find any minuscule spark of information that could help him. 

Asmodeus may have taken his magic, but Magnus couldn’t rest until he knew for certain that there was no way he could get it back on his own. He had to be certain.

One page in a book a few days after that fateful night soon turned into a whole book by the next day, then two more books, and more references to other books. So far, everything was fruitless. But he wasn’t giving up. 

That’s how Alec found Magnus that night.

Magnus hadn’t even heard Alec approaching the office, much less heard Alec wake up from his nap. Magnus sat up when he saw Alec appear at the door, letting out a sigh when he realized what this looked like. “Alexander...” As much as Magnus tried only searching for his solution when he was alone, he knew Alec had known exactly what he was up to the past week. “How are you feeling?”

Alec stepped into the room. “Magnus, I’m worried about you.”

Magnus shut the book he was flipping through and started straightening up some things on his desk. “No need to be, I’m--”

Alec placed his good hand on top of Magnus’ hand. “You’re going to drive yourself crazy doing this...”

Magnus let out a sigh. “I suppose I understand what you said earlier much better,” he said. “I can’t stand sitting around and doing nothing.”

Alec couldn’t help a small smile. “And I understand what you said better. For me, please take your own advice. You shouldn’t be doing this.”

Magnus had to concede. Of course his own words were coming back to him from his love. That’s just how he and Alec worked. Both lost different things but could speak to each other so well to relate. Magnus slid the books and papers off to the side and stood up, him and Alec exiting the office together.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at gryffindoralec.tumblr.com and on twitter @gryffindor_alec


End file.
